For want of a sheepherder
by Izumi1909
Summary: In a world where the expedition failed, Reynir ends up visiting a certain house in Sweden anyway, briging a precious gift in his bag.
1. For want of a sheepherder

**For want of a sheepherder**

Reynir eventually found the house, still not believing that he had made it all the way to Sweden on his own. So much for deciding to take that little escapade no further than Reykjavik. The Academy of Seiður was in town, so enrolling into it once he had been discovered to be a dormant mage hadn't required any extra travelling. Then the dreams had started, and he had not understood what they were until a big news story hit the stands a few days later. The biggest shock had been realizing that the dreams had started the day after the reported event was assumed to have happened. He had already taken to write the dreams down due to their sheer strangeness, but had become much more dedicated to it once he realized that they contained precious information that was impossible to get any other way. He knocked on the door, which was opened by Onni:  
-Oh, it's you. Come in.  
They had already made contact via their dreams during Reynir's trip. There weren't that many mages in Sweden, so he had been easy to find. Onni led him to the living room, where three children were playing with blocks. From the little Norwegian he had learned, Reynir could tell Onni was introducing him to the children in very basic Swedish. They both sat on the couch. Reynir pulled out the notebook in which he had written down his earliest dreams, and gave it to Onni. He looked around the room:  
-Isn't there supposed to be a radio here?  
-First thing they sold.  
He already knew why Onni was still here. He had nobody to go back home to and, in the midst of his grief, had realized that as mad as he was at their parents, these children didn't deserve to suffer the consequences of what had happened. They had already lost a beloved cousin to this. Onni had taken upon himself to watch them while their parents were kept busy repairing the damage that had been done. Reynir watched the children play as Onni was silently reading the notebook. At some point, the scaled-down version of Emil among them came close to him and started examining his braid. After an indeterminate amount of time, Onni closed the notebook and put it on his lap. Reynir decided to prompt him:  
-So?  
The other Onni had no idea what those ghosts were, so there was no way this one would have one. But a least, he now had an idea of what had happened to his younger sister and cousin. And of why Reynir, of all people, had ended up with the dreams.  
-Did you inform the Nordic Council of this?  
-I tried. From what I could tell, they either didn't believe me or didn't care. Same thing for getting in contact with Trond, Taru or Sigrun's parents. I thought _someone_ who was involved in the expedition should see these, and you are all that's left. Well, except Torbjörn and Siv, but they will probably be in the non-believer crowd.  
Onni stayed silent for a few moments before speaking again:  
-Are they back from the expedition yet? The other ones, I mean.  
-No, but they are on their way to their pick-up spot.  
Onni spoke again after a few moments of silence:  
-I'm staying in the guest room ever since Trond and Taru left. There is a second bed in there. You can stay here for a while.  
-Why would…  
-I'll figure out a way to make them believe you. In the meantime, Siv has gone back to working at that Rash research institute.  
-I already told you the cure the others found was a dead end.  
-Another expedition down there is very unlikely to get funded after Torbjörn and Siv's didn't even get to make that trip. Your access to what the others know is the most solid lead we may ever get. Anything you pick up from them will be better than the circles in which the people at the institute have been running for the last fifty years.  
Reynir suddenly perked up:  
-You mean I could actually find out what the cure to the Rash is if I keep noting my dreams down long enough?  
-I wouldn't go that far, but I still think it would be a monumental mistake to not explore the option. Though honestly, the mood around here could use getting a little better as well.

The memories from the previous day would always come flowing in right before he woke up, which let them still be fresh when he had the means of noting them down. He couldn't help getting worried about his other self, whose thoughts seemed to have gotten bad enough to not realize that Lalli had been in no shape to call Onni for help that evening, and that if he hadn't been there to do it instead, they would have all died in the ghost attack. At times like this, he really regretted not having any actual control or means of communicating with his other self. All the dreams let him do was observe. He had guessed the reason for this: his other self had ended up on the expedition by sheer "bad" luck, so any intervention on his part held the risk of keeping something else that was vital, but based on a very unlikely timing of events, from happening. However, he had very strong thoughts towards the conversation that he was currently transcribing. Yes, things would have been different if his other self hadn't left home. They would have been a lot worse.


	2. For want of a call

**Note:** I'm leaving that story as "completed" because I don't know if I'm going to continue this. I had at least five different ideas of how to write the original one-shot, so one of them was bound to transform into a sequel of sorts sooner or later.

 **For want of a call**

 _For want of a nail the shoe was lost.  
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.  
For want of a horse the rider was lost.  
For want of a rider the message was lost.  
For want of a message the battle was lost.  
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.  
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail._

The poem from the book he had been copying earlier that day kept repeating itself in Torbjörn's mind. Had the expedition had a figurative "nail" that would have kept it from failing just a few days in? He realized the thought was the silliest question ever. With the funding that they had been given for it, there was probably the equivalent of a whole crate of nails missing. As he entered the house with his stomach rumbling, he noticed that plenty of things that he knew to be damaged seemed in much better shape than when he left and decided his mind was playing tricks on him. When he entered the kitchen, Siv, the kids and Onni were already eating. Torbjörn sat in his chair, and realized it wasn't creaking in the first time since… he couldn't remember. Someone gave him a steaming plate. It took eating few bites of food for him to realize that he didn't recognize the hand that had given it to him, and that there were actually seven people at the table. Once he set eyes on the new person, he really wondered how he had not noticed them earlier with that swath of red hair.  
-Excuse me, but may I know what you are doing sitting at my table?  
Håkan piped up:  
-His name is Reynir, Onni let him in.  
Torbjörn turned his attention to Onni, but had trouble finding the right words to ask him for an explanation. The only reason Onni hadn't jumped the boat when Trond and Taru did was because he'd had no place to jump _to_ , and that was entirely Torbjörn's fault. But he was still living under his roof, and one of the last people Torbjörn expected to suddenly invite people over.  
-Icelandic mage in training, contacted me a few days ago. He told me a few interesting things, I told him he could stay here while he was in Mora. He made dinner and fixed some of your things.  
Torbjörn sighed. Whatever that alleged mage job actually consisted of, he'd gathered that Icelandic and Finnish mages didn't get to work together that often. Did that mean Onni was soon going to leave also? Torbjörn hated the idea of losing the cheapest babysitter he's ever had, but also knew he was lucky that Onni had stayed the time he had. Between the poem perpetually repeating in his mind and his knowledge that he wouldn't be able to follow a conversation involving so-called magic anyway, he decided to bring his attention to the children. Anna claimed that Reynir had a bunch of notebooks in his bag that they hadn't been allowed to read, Sune pointed out that the notes looked like they were in Icelandic, that they were just barely starting to learn to read. Sune went on to mention something that got Torbjörn slightly worried:  
-There was a piece of newspaper in the notebook he gave Onni to read. There was a photo of Emil. There was also the hissing big boy and the fat big girl with short hair.  
Torbjörn had a vague idea of what the newspaper clipping would be of. Onni said that Reynir had told him "few interesting things". He saw no clear reason for Reynir to have any kind of involvement in that failed expedition. He decided to ask more once dinner would be over.

Reynir had immediately handed the notebook that Sune had seen earlier to Torbjörn, before he asked for it, timidly asking him to read it. Onni had insisted on being present when Torbjörn would be doing so, which left Siv to tend to the children. The first entry was a recording Reynir's first "possible vision". The dream apparently consisted of waking up in a cramped room surrounded by people speaking sentences that he couldn't understand, but in which he vaguely recognized the occasional word. A few lines later, the events described made Torbjörn realize that the people surrounding him in the dream were the expedition's crew, and that they were in the Silent World. There was discussion of naming a kitten that the crew had for some reason while Mikkel was making lunch, and a conversation over the radio with Onni (who was referred to as a misspelled version of his full name). During that conversation, Reynir was thanking Onni for something "awesome" that had happened the night before, and discussing what he guessed to be things only mages could understand. There seemed to be some kind of misunderstanding at some point, that resulted in Reynir on correcting Onni on the training he had, which was none at all. The rest of the day consisted of the crew packing the tank, and starting to drive to Odense. The following entry, written down a day later, seemed to depict the full next day. Following the third day, there were a few notes from Reynir who seemed to be trying to figure out what he was dreaming so recurrently about. By that point, Reynir had noticed that the outfit he was wearing was the one in which he had left home, that he was doing household work if he was doing anything at all and that nobody seemed to be taking his "magic" abilities particularly seriously. After finishing the entry corresponding to the fourth day, Torbjörn had only been partially surprised turn the page to find a newspaper clipping depicting all five crew members that had been given some kind of preservation treatment glued on one page, and the words "It's them" written in large letters and a trembling hand on the page right next to it. Back in his own living room, Reynir seemed to notice he had stopped turning the pages.  
-I don't want to get your hopes up. Your expedition failed, mages much more advanced than me have made sure there was no mistake about that. I figured out I'm seeing how it would have gone if things had been different. More specifically, what would have happened if… I had been with them. The cure made at Odense turned out to be killing the patients for unknown reasons and the other Tuuri is currently in quarantine for a troll bite in the expedition I'm seeing, so it looks like the other me being with them is not fixing everything either. Otherwise, they are on their way to their pick-up spot. With a lot of books.  
Part of him wanted to throw the notebooks in the fire and kick the kid out. Another wanted to read every single thing he had written down. He didn't completely rule out doing both, in the order that would make it technically possible. He had a voice telling him that believing all this would entail believing in magic, and would get him committed to the mental ward sooner or later. Another was telling him that this was most certainly as close to what he most secretly wished for as the real world could get, and that he would be a fool to let go of it.

The decision Torbjörn had made turned out to be the right one, at least on the short term. A colleague of his had been asked to write a serial for a newspaper as last-minute replacement for someone who hadn't worked out, and had been short on time to find material to write about. In exchange for paying the meal and the small cut he could afford to give Torbjörn, he had asked him to tell him about the expedition, which he would turn into a story of a few chapters while trying to figure out something more long term.  
-… This is the last contact we ever had with them.  
Clemens sighed:  
-Thank you very much. I really don't want to disturb more than necessary with this, but readers are liking the story, and suggesting that instead of starting another one, I try to imagine what would have happened if the expedition had been able to continue. I will refuse if you don't want me to do it, of course. And if you accept, you can be as invested in it as you want. You can even pretend it doesn't exist altogether if you wish.  
Torbjörn took time to think. He could really use the extra money, which was the reason why he had accepted to help him with that short story in the first place. Each time he thought of a course of action, it inevitably involved asking Reynir something at some point. It took a while for him to realize that the only way he was going to get anywhere was by having Clemens and Reynir meet.

Clemens had fortunately been available to come to the house for dinner. Once he had started reading Reynir's notes, he had been unable to put them down until he had read through the entries that had been added after the Icelander has moved in.  
-This is very good for a first work, young man. I may need to change a few things, but I will give you a cut. And if you start dreaming up something else, I will definitely send you the way of someone who can help you get it published.  
After a long discussion with Onni in their room, Reynir agreed, but strangely enough, asked Clemens to not give him any credit. He was only going to take the money, so he would not be a burden on Torbjörn and Siv's household.

Once Clemens had left, Torbjörn couldn't resist an attempt to find out the reason of Reynir's decision. He definitely did not expect the answer:  
-People from my school know I'm here. They told me I was brushed off back in Iceland because very powerful people don't want anything indicating that an expedition in the Silent World could succeed to reach too many people. They consider that being in a place where almost nobody believes in magic, yet around people who will listen is the lesser of several possible evils, but they still don't want the real story to leave his house. The real events, changed by someone who doesn't believe in magic and wants to make them into a story people will want to read, is the closest thing they'll tolerate being available to the general public.  
-Why? People have been considering funding expeditions to the Silent World a waste of resources for decades, and they were proven right. I don't see why they would need to keep people from knowing about your dreams.  
-What the other me did to keep everyone else from dying that night is quite simple. He was able to do it in an emergency situation without any kind of training.  
Torbjörn's mouth asked what it was before his brain had fully registered what Reynir had said.  
-I guess it's basically a radio call, but with magic. He called the other Onni for help, and the other Onni was able to help all the way from here.  
Torbjörn had to remind himself that believing in Reynir's dreams entailed believing in magic as a whole. Yet, he had trouble accepting the idea of magic spells being used on the expedition and being the only thing keeping it from failing. A poem he had almost forgotten he had copied came back to his mind. He figured out the reason. Reynir had just given him the nature of the "nail".


End file.
